Improvement in draw-bars for railway-cars



J. R-. FISH. Draw-Bar for Railway-Car.

No. 207,727. Patented Sep-L 3, 1878.'

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

JOHN R. FISH, OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN DRAW-BARS FOR RAILWAY-CARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 207.727, datedSeptember 3, 1878; application filed December 13, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J oEN R. FISH, of Grand Rapids, in the county ofKent and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Draw-Bars for Railroad- Cars; and I do hereby declarethat the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof,reference being had to the accompanyin g drawings, and to the letters ofreference marked thereon, which form part of this specification.

The nature of my invention relates to drawbars for railroad-cars; and itconsists in the construction and combination of devices, as will behereinafter more fully set forth, and pointed out in the claim.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to which my inventionappertains to make and use the same, I will now proceed to describe itsconstruction and operation, referring to the annexed drawings, in which-Figure l is a bottom view of my invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinalvertical section of the same 5A and Fig. 3 is a transverse verticalsection on the line y y, Fig. 2.

A represents part of the frame-work of a railroad-car to which thedraw-bar is connected. B is a solid draw-bar, formed with a head, C, atits front end, said head being constructed with a flaring mouth toreceive the coupling-link. From the rear end of the draw-barB projectsarod, D; or the rear portion of the draw-bar may simply be turned down,so as to form a shoulder at a. The draw-bar B is placed within ametallic frame, G, Ahaving a head orrbumper, E, at its front end, andthe part D of the draw-bar extends through a hole in the rear end of theframe. In the frame G are suitable holes for the passage of thecoupling-pin'H, and the head G ofthe draw-bar is slotted longitudinally,as shown at o c in Fig. 2, for the passage of said pin H, allowing thesurrounding frame to move a certain distance independent of the baritself. `Against the shoulder (t on the draw-bar is placed a washer, b,and between this washer and the rear end ofthe frame, on the inner side,is placed a spring, J, surrounding a portion of the part D of thedraw-bar.

On the rear portion of said part D is vanother spring, J', between twoslides, I I', which are held by and move in guides K K on the frame A. fA nut, d, is screwed on the end of the part'D, as shown.

The operation is substantially as follows: In pulling, the pin H drawsthe frame G forward the length of the ,slot c in the draw-head,compressing` thereby the spring J. As soon as the pin H gets to thefront end of the slot c, both the draw-bar B and frame G are pulledforward, and the spring J' is then compressed, the slide I thenremaining stationaryywhile the slide Itis drawn forward to compress thespring J'. In like manner, in backing, the bar B is pushed back,compressing the spring J until the front part of the draw-head at theend of the slot c strikes the pin H, when both the draw-bar and theframe are moved back, compressing the spring J.

It will thus be seen that while I have two springs, they are not bothcompressed at the same time; but in either case, whether pulling orbacking, one spring is brought into action-that is, compressed-first,and when this has been compressed asY far as it will be, then the secondspring is compressed, the eX- tent of compression of the first springdepending upon the vlength of the slot c in the drawhead.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of the draw-bar B D, provided with head G, havinglongitudinal slots c c, the surrounding longitudinally-movable frame G,provided with bumper E, the two springs J J', loose slides I I', andguides or ways K K, all constructed and arranged to operatesubstantially in the manner and for the purposes herein set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I afx my signature inpresence of two witnesses.

JOHN RANDOLPH msi-I.

Witnesses:

J AMEs R. Brsnor, CYEUs E. PERKINs.

